The Jacksonville Jaguars‘ late-season collapse culminated with an embarrassing Week 18 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, ending the club’s chances of winning the AFC South and eliminating them from playoff contention.
While head coach Doug Pederson is highly unlikely to become a victim of Black Monday after taking the Jaguars to the postseason in his 2022 debut, Jacksonville will have a litany of questions to answer over the upcoming offseason.
Jaguars Eliminated From Playoffs With Week 18 Loss
After winning the AFC South and advancing to the Divisional Round last year, the Jaguars were considered virtual locks to hoist the division title again in 2023.
Only the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers had shorter odds of winning their respective divisions before the season than Jacksonville (-155).
The Jaguars’ AFC South competition got much stiffer this year, as the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts completed turnarounds far earlier than most expected. Houston won the division crown with a win over the Colts on Saturday night.
But Jacksonville has no one to blame but themselves for its collapse. Trevor Lawrence and Co. were 8-3 following their Week 12 win over the Texans and appeared to be on track for their second straight AFC South title.
Then, disaster struck.
Jacksonville gave away an overtime game to the Jake Browning-led Cincinnati Bengals in Week 13, while Lawrence suffered the first of several late-season injuries near the end of the contest.
Lawrence was able to gut it out over the next several weeks, but the Jags dropped games to the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to fall to 8-7.
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After battling through an ankle sprain and a concussion, Lawrence missed Week 17 with a shoulder issue. C.J. Beathard led Jacksonville to a victory over the Carolina Panthers, but the Texans’ and Colts’ run of success made Week 18 another must-win.
The Titans could only play spoiler on Sunday, but that was enough for Mike Vrabel’s squad, which picked off Lawrence twice in the second quarter and held a 21-13 halftime lead. The Jaguars had four possessions in the second half — one concluded with a touchdown, but the other three ended on downs.
How Will the Jaguars Approach the 2024 Offseason?
While the end of their 2023 campaign was massively disappointing, the Jaguars can start looking ahead to 2024, when they’ll need to augment their roster to keep up with the upstart Texans and Colts.
Jacksonville will enter the offseason with roughly $25 million in cap space, 19th-most in the NFL, per Over the Cap. However, the Jags could open up almost $40 million in additional breathing room by cutting veterans like WR Zay Jones, OT Cam Robinson, G Brandon Scherff, and CB Darious Williams.
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The two most significant items on general manager Trent Baalke’s offseason agenda are pending free agents Calvin Ridley and Josh Allen.
Allen is an open-and-shut case. He’s been so dominant as a pass rusher in his fifth NFL campaign that Jacksonville will have no choice but to franchise tag him — at a cost of $23.342 million — if the two sides can’t agree on a long-term extension.
Ridley’s free agency is a bit more complicated, as his status is tied to the draft pick compensation the Jaguars will send to the Atlanta Falcons to complete their 2022 trade.
Because Ridley played more than 60% of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps this season, Jacksonville already owes Atlanta a third-round selection. If the Jags sign Ridley to an extension, they’ll have to send a 2024 second-rounder to the Falcons.
With a third-rounder already a sunk cost, sacrificing another round of draft position for the right to sign Ridley to a new contract won’t be much of a hindrance for the Jaguars if they decide to retain him. But Ridley didn’t necessarily play like the WR1 Jacksonville had hoped to acquire.
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While Ridley crossed the 1,000-yard threshold with a 106-yard performance in Week 18, he also took a backseat to fellow WR Christian Kirk for much of the season. With Kirk sidelined from Weeks 14 through 17, Ridley only topped 60 receiving yards once in four games.
Assuming he reaches the open market, Ridley will compete for a contract with other free agent wideouts like Tee Higgins, Mike Evans, Michael Pittman Jr., and Marquise Brown.
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